Matt passed away after an 18-month battle against the disease. The Accies squad and former team-mates like Rangers’ Greg Docherty and ex-boss Alex Neil were at the service to show their respects to one of the club’s own.

Craig joined Accies as a 12-year-old defender, rated good enough to play for Scotland schoolboys alongside Docherty.

Cairns shared a SuperSeal Stadium office with him and felt the pain of his loss more than most.

He said: “I’ll tell you the kind of boy Matt was. When he went into hospital, he took his computer. While he was fighting for his life, he was coordinating our coaches and our summer camps.

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grazie Mo

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“His dad asked me to speak and it was hard, but I wanted people to know what Matt was like. He was funny. He’d impersonate people to a T — me, Colin McGowan, managers. He made you laugh, he was infectious.

“Alex Neil and Frankie McAvoy changed Preston’s training to come up.

“It was important people saw what he meant to us because he was one of ours.”